Hardware wins at Game Developer Conference
By Micheal Mullen
March 26, 1999
Gamespot

The show floor in San Jose has closed for the Game Developers Conference, and while there wasn't anything unexpected shown to attendees, the show stuck true to its development roots.

The fear that game publishers would promote their wares like rabid dogs (this was the first year software publishers could show their title on the floor) just didn't pan out.

Now that the rush of two simultaneous shows (GDC and the Tokyo Game Show) is over - we wanted to give gamers a quick look at some of the technologies that caught our eye over the course of the weeklong event.

As always, there were games on the show floor being used to show off technology and one welcome addition - the Independent Game Festival. The festival helped showcase a segment of the gaming community many people don't hear from - independent developers in search of a publisher. The Indie Festival and its awards ceremony brought back many accomplished gamer developers to see others who are now in the roles they had certainly once occupied - small teams of artists, programmers and designers building games, on a shoestring or no budget, as a labor of love, passion, and creative expression. The Indy area had an international feel to it as several companies from Europe hoped for a chance to publish their game with the Gathering of Developers. Many of this year's games looked similar to those already in the gaming channel, but considering this is the first year of the awards, many developers may be slightly unsure of what type of game will be worthy of the top awards.

Choose your weapons
Video cards and joysticks still took up major portions of the show floor. 3dfx showed off its new logo and a new booth. It had several kiosks showing Homeworld and Quake 3 Arena.

NVidia showcased its new TNT2 graphics card with several gaming stations, complete with large flat-panel screens - all of which definitely got attention. 3Dlabs introduced its new Permedia 3 chip to attendees with a semicircle of screens and stations that let everyone play.

ATI powered up the Rage 128 chip with several demos, but the none of the tech demos came close to the Unreal with Egyptian hieroglyphic wall we were hoping to see in action. (Oddly, ATI didn't have any systems showcasing its DVD capabilities, which is one of the company's signature features).

S3 let gamers take its latest Savage 4 chip for a spin with Unreal Tournament. While we were playing, we were getting an average of about 56 frames per second. Not too shabby.

Sounds great
Dolby was also on the show floor with an impressive-sounding booth promoting Dolby Digital for games. During a brief demo, we saw some footage of Psygnosis' Lander, which will ship on DVD (with Dolby Digital sound quality built-in). Still tough to see how good gameplay will actually be, but listening to techno music coded for Dolby Digital 5.1 gives "surround" a whole new meaning.

Matrox took the opportunity to show off its new G400 card with bump mapping, its new 256-bit DualBus architecture, and a working Open GL ICD (something that Matrox owners have been waiting too long for). The company was also the only one showing a DualHead board that lets users plug in two monitors (or one monitor and one TV) into one card. Compatible with the Windows 98 Multi-monitor feature, the DualHead board may give gamers a compelling reason to see that two monitors are better than one. Also, Matrox has given up on the expandable memory option and decided to go with 32 MB of RAM. Good news.

New tools
Designer and programmers have several new options with an array of tools shown at GDC. Metrowerks showed off its latest flurry of CodeWarrior environments to programmers looking to code for the PC, Mac, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Nintendo 64. Metrowerks is working closely with Sony to help develop the suite for the next generation PlayStation but wasn't talking about the tools or showing them at the show. We expect more information to crop up over the coming months as we move closer to May's E3 event in Los Angeles.

Animation powerhouse Nichimen Graphics showed off its latest 3D-modeling tool, Mirai, to those with artistic skills. To the uninitiated, the suite looks fairly complex, but it lets modelers manipulate objects in a countless number of ways. A demo being shown gave an excellent example of how simple it is to mold digital clay into the body of a character. With a US$3,000 price tag, this definitely isn't for the home-based tinkerer. Luckily, the company's Nendo software allows would-be modelers a quick and easy solution to making characters. Yet Nichimen has had to deal with a little bit of competition with its higher-end products because Nendo is so easy to use - some game modelers have actually been creating models in Nendo and importing them into higher-end tools to fine tune. With a $99 price tag, even without all the features of the company's more expensive products, almost anyone can build basic models with ease. A demo of the software is also available on the company's site.

See me -- CE
Hasbro Interactive was one of the few software publishers showing off its games without the help of any other company's hardware. And copies of Scrabble Email Game were everywhere. Unfortunately, the company wasn't showing off MechWarrior 3 yet (which we think it really should have been) but it was showing off its latest CE games: Trivial Pursuit and Slingo. The games looked colorful, easy to play, and could scale down even to the smaller palm-size Windows CE machines. At just over 1 MB to 1.5 MBs, the games should be a simple addition to any Windows CE user's device.

Also during the show, we had a chance to take a spin with Gravis' new GamePad Pro USB. While playing Need for Speed with the controller, it felt accurate and responsive. The pad uses the same design as the Sony PlayStation, but its construction doesn't feel quite as solid as the Sony controller. Also, we'd like to have a little more weight added to the controller since it feels light as a feather. The controller should be out at the end of the month with iMac compatibility (along with Windows 95 and 98) and a selling price of $29.99.

Intel inside
Wandering through the Intel booth, we saw one demo person who looked as if he were lazily swatting flies away. After investigating what was going on, we were introduced to Reality Fusion technology, and luckily it had nothing to do with flies. The technology uses any PC Web cam (serial, USB, and Intel preferred) to track a user's hand and object movements. Some simple demos showed off a bouncing ball as your hand smacked around a basketball into two hoops. The company rep said that they've built one demo where you can hold a light saber and have a program fill in the glowing saber section in real time. With all the hype surrounding The Phantom Menace, gamers would kill for a game with this built in.

Other applications include virtual controllers and 3D user interfaces. While it probably wouldn't improve your Quake II game, it could make RTS games and RPGs more fun with less clicking. (Plus, most gamers we know should move around a little more from lack of exercise.) One strange application the company is working on is an HDTV mounted camera that you wave to. Once you wave, a remote control pops up on your TV screen and you select whatever you want. Makes looking for the controller seem pretty low-tech, eh? More info on this technology can be had at www.realityfusion.com.

Logitech also showcased its latest controllers, with the addition of its new Gaming Mouse. The mouse looks similar to the company's latest three-button mice but with a more aggressive black and silver color scheme. But under the hood, the mouse has a higher refresh rate, making for more accurate control in any game, a heavier ball for keeping the mouse on your desk, and USB-only connection. On the other side, we played with the company's WingMan Formula Force steering controller powered by Immersion's I-Force technology. The red rubber-gripped wheel felt easy to hold with USB-powered accuracy and highly realistic force-feedback while looking much cooler than other wheels at the show.

The next month and a half leading up to LA's E3 is sure to bring even more hardware, technology, and software to the forefront, and we'll take it piece by piece to help you gauge what's hype and what's hot.

Company Finder:
Metrowerks Corp.
Psygnosis

For magazine subscription savings, risk-free trial issues, newsletters, and more, click here!